Fifty years ago today Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of the Conservative party by her fellow MPs. This week Kemi Badenoch celebrated 100 days as the tenth person to hold that position since Margaret Thatcher. We live in different times but there are a remarkable number of challenges that they both face(d) as incoming leaders.
Thatcher won the leadership because she had the balls to challenge Edward Heath. Even though she won over 50% of MPs on the second ballot, they never really wanted her and there were all sorts of moves to destabilise her leadership, even from within her own shadow cabinet. Badenoch only one the support of a third of her fellow MPs and even after only 100 days there are whispers about how she won’t last. Her previous opponents, Robert Jenrick and James Cleverly already smell the blood of a wounded political animal and both are touring the so-called rubber chicken circuit of Tory Association dinners in a bid to keep relevant and step forward if the opportunity presents itself.
Both Thatcher and Badenoch knew when they were elected, they’d only get one chance of becoming prime minister. They both face(d) the challenge of being a woman in a man’s world. Thatcher was hugely helped by the Soviets calling her the ‘Iron Lady’ in 1977. Badenoch needs a similar moment in order to cement her position.
Badenoch is already coming under criticism for being a policy free zone. Thatcher faced the same accusations in the first two years of her leadership. The difference is that Thatcher didn’t have to cope with the demands of a 24/7 voracious news media, which if it isn’t fed on a daily basis will talk about leadership plotting.
The main difference between Kemi and Maggie (as she became known in the tabloids) is that Thatcher didn’t face the challenge of a populist right wing challenger party. And Badenoch’s leadership may well in the end be defined by how she fights off, or fails to fight off, the threat posed by Nigel Farage.
Badenoch knows that the general public aren’t really interested in hearing from the Tories after their failures of the last few years, and is right to spend the next year embarking on a major policy review. She should study the ‘Stepping Stones’ paper written by Sir John Hoskyns in 1977, which helped form the basis of the Tory manifesto in 1979. She should feed off the right of centre policy think tanks in a magpie like manner. In short, Badenoch can’t emulate Thatcher, but she can learn from her experience of being in opposition from 1975-79. Badenoch is her own woman, but she’s smart enough to know that she doesn’t have all the answers. Yet.
It is entirely possible to argue that Margaret Thatcher, as prime minister, changed this country more than any other of the 58 people who have served in the office over the last 300 years. In the first four years of her leadership, few saw her potential to do what she did. For Kemi Badenoch, the challenges facing her and the obstacles being put in her way will certainly test her mettle, and enable us to find out what kind of political leader she will be.
Margaret Thatcher, by Iain Dale is published on 5 June by Swift Press. Signed copies can be pre-ordered here https://www.politicos.co.uk/products/margaret-thatcher-a-short-biography-signed-by-iain-dale-coming-5-june-2025
